Plane Crashes in Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A plane carrying 62 people crashed in Russia’s Tula region south of Moscow on Tuesday, Itar-Tass reported.

The Tu-154 aircraft, with 54 passengers and eight crew on board, crashed near the village of Buchalki, some 110 miles south of Moscow, the agency said, quoting a local civil defense and emergencies official.

In a separate report, Interfax news agency said air controllers lost contact with a Tu-154 taking 44 passengers from Moscow to the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

It quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying contact stopped at 3 p.m. EDT when it should have been 90 miles from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.

It was not immediately clear if this was the plane that crashed near Tula, more than 500 miles northeast of Rostov.

Tupolev’s Tu-154 jet remains the standard medium-range airliner on domestic flights in Russia, according to aviation Web Sites. Some 157 ft in length, it can carry up to 180 passengers for up to 2,500 miles.